Dennis L. BrownAttorney

Bio

Dennis grew up in a working-class neighborhood on the east side of Detroit, where he saw people injured at work or in accidents without access to attorneys — and watched their families suffer financially as a result. That’s why he went to law school: to help people who needed someone in their corner.

Dennis attended Michigan State University on a draft deferment during the Vietnam War, graduating with a B.A. with honors in 1972 before being drafted into the U.S. Army, where he served in Vietnam and Germany. He used the G.I. Bill to attend law school at South Texas College of Law Houston, earning his J.D. in 1979, where he was a member of the 1978 Mock Trial Team, won the 1977 Moot Court Competition, and served as President of Delta Theta Phi in 1978. He has lived in Houston ever since, raising two sons and two daughters and building a career around a simple belief: that no one should have to face the biggest, wealthiest companies and insurers alone.

Dennis is Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the State Bar of Texas, with a practice focused on maritime injuries involving dockworkers at ports across Texas, offshore workers, and seamen aboard vessels. He is a past Director of the Houston Trial Lawyers Association and has been a guest lecturer multiple times on maritime law and the Longshore Act at the yearly seminar held at Loyola University New Orleans, which is accredited by the Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama Bar Associations.

Dennis has spent his career taking on employers and insurance carriers in courts all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, and has secured judgments in the multiple millions of dollars for his clients.

Some of Dennis’ recent settlements include:

• $20,000,000.00 settlement for an inhalation victim.
• $2,000,000.00 settlement for longshoreman injured in fall on vessel in the Port of Houston.
• $2,500,000.00 settlement for longshoreman injured from a fall into a barge.
• $2,000,000.00 settlement for longshoreman struck by a mooring line.
• $550,000.00 settlement for a non-operated back injury from a collision.
• Multiple lifetime compensation awards for longshoremen and Defense Base Act clients.

Some of Dennis’ notable decisions include:

• Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision establishing jury trial rights in Longshore claims against vessels.
• Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision establishing the entire chemical plant along the Houston Ship Channel a maritime situs for injury claims (U.S. Supreme Court affirmed).
• Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision declaring container royalty payments to longshoremen as wages for compensation purposes.

While some attorneys try to avoid trial at any cost, Dennis L. Brown is not afraid to take a case to trial if the insurance company is not offering adequate money to fully compensate you — his client. Too many attorneys, in his view, only want the easy liability cases with severe injuries where the money is easiest to earn; he has always focused instead on taking on difficult liability cases and winning them through hard work, while also taking on lesser injuries, because a hand injury can limit someone’s ability to work just as much as a back injury when the job involves physical labor. He understands how injuries impact both the individual and their family, so he ensures all of his clients and families are treated with respect and given careful attention.

Dennis loves the diversity Houston offers — the arts, sports, and wide spectrum of restaurants the city provides — and has built his life and family there ever since coming home to start his legal career on the G.I. Bill.